de fences He spoke firmly, showing that the subject was beyond
discussion, then offered Dodd a gap-toothed smile and gestured towards
the palace at the centre of the Inner Fort.
“Come, Colonel, I want to show you something.”
The two men walked through the small houses that surrounded the palace,
past an Arab sentry who protected the palace precincts, then through
some flowering trees where monkeys crouched. Dodd could hear the
tinkle of the bells where Beny Singh was playing with his women, but
that sound faded as the path twisted deeper into the trees.
The path ended at a rock face that was pierced by an arched wooden
door. Dodd looked up while Bappoo unlocked the door and saw that the
great rock slab formed the palace foundations and, when Bappoo thrust
back the creaking door, he understood that it led into the palace
cellars.
A lantern stood on a shelf just inside the door and there was a pause
while Bappoo lit its wick.
“Come,” Bappoo said, and led Dodd into the marvelous coolness of the
huge low cellar.
“It is rumoured,” Bappoo said, ‘that we store the treasures of Berar in
here, and in one sense it is true, but they are not the treasures that
men usually dream of.” He stopped by a row of barrels and casually
knocked off their lids, revealing that the tubs were filled with copper
coins.
“No gold or silver,” Bappoo said, ‘but money all the same. Money to
hire new mercenaries, to buy new weapons and to make a new army.”
Bappoo trickled a stream of the newly minted coins through his
fingers.
“We have been lax in paying our men,” he confessed.
“My brother, for all his virtues, is not generous with his treasury.”
Dodd grunted. He was not sure what virtues the Rajah of Berar did
possess. Certainly not valour, nor generosity, but the Rajah was
fortunate in his brother, for Bappoo was loyal and evidently determined
to make up for the Rajah’s shortcomings.
“Gold and silver,” Dodd said, ‘would buy better arms and more men.”
“My brother will not give me gold or silver, only copper. And we must
work with what we have, not with what we dream of.” Bappoo put the
lids back onto the barrels, then edged between them to where rack after
rack of muskets stood.
“These, Colonel,” he said, ‘are the weapons for that new army.”
There were thousands of muskets, all brand new, and all equipped with
bayonets and cartridge boxes. Some of the guns were locally made
copies of French muskets, but several hundred looked to Dodd to be of
British make. He lifted one from the racks and saw the Tower mark on
its lock.
“How did you get these?” he asked, surprised.
Bappoo shrugged.
“We have agents in the British camp. They arrange it. We meet some of
their supply convoys well to the south and pay for their contents. It
seems there are traitors in the British army who would rather make
money than seek victory.”
“You buy guns with copper?” Dodd asked scathingly. He could not
imagine any man selling a Tower musket for a handful of copper.
“No,” Bappoo confessed.
“To buy the weapons and the cartridges we need gold, so I use my own.
My brother, I trust, will repay me one day.”
Dodd frowned at the hawk-faced Bappoo.
“You’re using your money to keep your brother on the throne?” he asked
and, though he waited for an answer, none came. Dodd shook his head,
implying that “5
Bappoo’s nobility was beyond understanding, then he cocked and fired
the unloaded musket. The spark of the flint flashed a sparkle of red
light against the stone ceiling.
“A musket in its rack kills no one,” he said.
“True. But as yet we don’t have the men to carry these muskets. But
we will, Colonel. Once we have defeated the British the other kingdoms
will join us.” That, Dodd reflected, was true enough. Scindia, Dodd’s
erstwhile employer, was suing for peace, while Holkar, the most
formidable of the Mahratta monarchs, was staying aloof from the
contest, but if Bappoo did win his victory, those chieftains would be